Non-hygroscopic malt-extract preparations and process for making the same.



Ho Drawing.

UNITED srnrrn i grmvr OFFICE.

FRANZ ELGER, OF BASEL, SWITZERLAND, ASSIGNOR T0 HOFFMANN-LA ROCHE CHEMICAL WORKS, 015 NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF YORK. I

N'GN-HYGROSCOPIC MALT-EXTRACT PREPARATIONS AND PROCESS FOR MAKING THE SAME.

1,100,176. Specification of Letters Patent.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANZ ELGER, a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and a resident of Basel, Switzerland, have in-. vented Non-Hygroscopic Malt-Extract Preparations and Process for Making the Same, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to produce malt extract preparations suitable for food purposes, and particularly such as are suitbut the food products which contain hygroscopic malt extract have a tendency to detriora-te in value. The presence of water in malt extract resulting from this hygroscopic action has a further disadvantage that it tends to charfge the chemical constitution of the preparations. For example, malt extracts which have absorbed 25% of water readily ferment and create in the preparation a tendenc to the formation of mold. According y, malt extracts, and all prepara tions which contain malt extract, have had to be carefully stored and handled in order to prevent, under the varying conditions of use, the hygroscopic activity of the malt extract from affecting it or the preparations containing it. Many attempts have been made to neutralize, destroy or overcome this hygroscopic quality of malt extract, but

without success. Finally, the discovery was made that the addition to the malt extract of casein calcium will result in a preparation which no longer exhibits the deleterious qualities of the malt extract. Casein cal- Patented June 16, 1914.

Application filed February 27, 1914. Serial No. 821,453.

cium is a white tasteless granular powder, readily soluble in water, having a food value of its own which harmonizes with the food value of malt extract. The preferred form of casein calcium is that described in Letters Patent No. 1,087,515, issued on application of Phili Sprenger and Aegidius Tschudi, on February 17, 1914. In spite of the fact that malt extract has a marked by groscopic quality and that the casein calcium is readily soluble in water, a proper mixture of these two substances results in a non-hygroscopic dry preparation.

Good results are obtained by mixing, for example, one part casein calcium and two parts of malt extract. Even after long exposure to air, such a preparation does not exhibit any indications of change, but the powder remains dry and does not become pasty or packed together.

The preparation may be made by direct mixing of dry malt extract with dry casein calcium, or these two substances may be dissolved together and the solution evaporated by appropriate means until a dry product is FR ANZ ELGER.

Witnesses ARNOLD ZI'iBnR, PETER Mn'rzonn. 

